In the afternoon, the shinobi army bound for the Land of Hot Water departed. The sheer number of ninjas meant the procession lasted well until dusk.
That night, Aburame Tetsumaru made his move. Carrying nothing but a single mission scroll, he walked out of Konoha's gates alone, looking every bit the dejected exile as he disappeared into the deep, oppressive darkness.
However, Tetsumaru didn't head south toward the Land of Tea. Instead, he pivoted west, advancing at full speed. Two days later, he slipped quietly across the border of the Land of Rivers and rendezvoused with his Shadow Clones at the frontier of the Land of Wind.
Waiting with the clones was a scorpion. A truly massive scorpion. It lay limp on the ground, its gargantuan stinger draped uselessly over its back. This wasn't something on the scale of a land vehicle; it was the size of a hundred-ton vessel.
After capturing this behemoth, Tetsumaru's Shadow Clones had spent five full days transporting it to the border. They lacked the strength to carry it directly to the Land of Tea, so the only viable plan was to head south through the Land of Rivers and enter the sea, sailing directly to their destination.
Tetsumaru had already surveyed the route, but there were complications. Traveling downriver meant navigating several sections where small boats could pass, but larger vessels could not. There were dangerous reefs, shallow sandbars, and one unavoidable waterfall.
The final danger was the local ninja village of the Land of Rivers: Tanigakure, the Village Hidden in the Valley.
It was a small, dirt-poor hidden village tucked away in a valley adjacent to the water. Their primary duty was monitoring the main artery of the Land of Rivers to prevent the capital from being raided by forces coming upriver.
Realistically, however, this was an outdated configuration from the early Warring States Period. During the two Great Wars following the dawn of the Hidden Village era, the Land of Rivers' capital had been repeatedly trampled by both Wind and Fire.
Whenever one nation pushed the other out of the Land of Rivers, they would simply send a force upriver from the south and effortlessly occupy the capital. They would then intimidate the Daimyo of the Land of Rivers into signing documents allowing their ninjas transit rights.
Initially, the Land of Rivers made a show of resistance. The Daimyo would issue missions to Tanigakure, asking them to put up a token fight to show some "backbone." But after falling time and time again, the sovereign had effectively "laid flat."
The Daimyo no longer summoned the Tani ninjas, nor did he station guards. When the Sand or Leaf ninjas came, they came. He kept the transit papers pre-signed and stamped; they could just take them and go. It saved everyone the trouble.
This, however, meant Tanigakure had lost its only source of income. Life for the Tani ninjas was bleak. To survive, they had secretly taken up part-time work as river pirates, plundering the ships and merchants traveling the waterways.
It was precisely because of Tanigakure's presence that Tetsumaru hadn't cleared the obstacles during his initial survey. He didn't want to attract too much attention from the local ninjas.
A normal Tani patrol consisted of a single skiff and six or seven ninjas. Tetsumaru could easily deal with that. His plan was to charge through in one breath and leave the mess behind.
These small, struggling villages were pragmatic. They had no interest in chasing down an enemy just for the sake of "face," even if their own ninjas had just been killed. They were too busy surviving.
After reviewing his plan one last time, Tetsumaru got to work, felling thirty massive trees.
Working alongside his clones, he used ropes woven from bark to lash the stripped trunks into a raft. He used the remaining wood to build a triangular shelter over the giant scorpion, camouflaging its silhouette so it wouldn't stand out.
Covering the scorpion would prevent minor headaches, like being spotted by merchants or fishermen who might leak the news. It might invite other troubles—like Tani ninjas suspecting valuable cargo and insisting on an inspection—but that was a manageable problem.
With everything ready, Tetsumaru pushed the raft into the river and began his journey. The rivers of the Land of Rivers were voluminous and swift; the raft moved at a blistering pace, no slower than a galloping horse.
The journey over the next two days was smooth. Tetsumaru destroyed two reefs just in time and jumped off to push the raft through shallow sandbars. He safely covered more than half the distance, gradually nearing the territory of Tanigakure.
Fweeeeee!
A long, piercing whistle echoed through the valley. Tetsumaru, who had been admiring the Three Gorges-like scenery, let out a sigh. These Tani ninjas had indeed succumbed to greed and decided to target his raft.
"Truly seeking death," Tetsumaru muttered. He hadn't expected that even dressed as an ordinary merchant on a simple raft, he would trigger their avarice.
Is the camouflage shelter that enticing?
A small village was exactly that—small. These Tani ninjas were unprofessional. They hadn't confirmed the guards' strength or the cargo's value before launching a reckless assault.
In truth, Tetsumaru didn't realize that the Tani ninjas had confirmed the cargo's value. The wood he had used to cover the scorpion wasn't ordinary timber; it was a rare and expensive wood native only to the Land of Rivers.
The export of this precious timber was a major source of revenue for the Daimyo, who strictly forbade anyone from felling the trees without permission. Transportation and sale were heavily regulated.
With this justification, the Tani ninjas' actions weren't illegal robbery, but a "lawful seizure" of contraband. By taking down this reckless smuggler, they would earn the Daimyo's praise, a bounty, and potentially more missions.
With so many benefits on the line, the Tani ninjas abandoned caution. If they didn't strike now, the target would escape with the current. Downriver rafts were fast.
First, two Tani ninjas hurled grappling hooks, snagging the front of the raft. They planted their feet and pulled with all their might, attempting to halt its momentum.
However, the massive raft was deceptively heavy. Because Tetsumaru himself was the only visible reference point, the ninjas had drastically underestimated the raft's mass. The combined weight of the logs and the scorpion, propelled at the speed of a charging horse, was irresistible. The two Tani ninjas were yanked instantly into the river; even the trees and boulders they had used for leverage were uprooted.
If they couldn't stop it, they would board and kill. Surely a few merchants couldn't resist ninjas.
A minute later, six limp corpses drifted in the river, though they were all tethered to rocks on the bank by a single rope. Evidently, the killer didn't want the bodies drifting downstream.
The final obstacle required raw power; the waterfall could not be bypassed.
Water Style: Great Exploding Water Colliding Wave!Water Style: Great Exploding Water Colliding Wave!Water Style: Great Exploding Water Colliding Wave!
Working in tandem with his Shadow Clones, Tetsumaru unleashed a series of Water Style jutsu, creating a man-made chakra surge. The massive volume of water flooded the relatively low waterfall, allowing the raft to shoot across the crest in one go.
After the chaos, they successfully cleared the falls with minimal damage, losing only a few planks of the camouflage shelter. A small price to pay.
Once he entered the open sea, Tetsumaru's work was largely done. The ocean currents would carry his raft directly toward the coast of the Land of Tea, where he would meet with the Shadow clones who had arrived ahead of time.
What followed was a long, six-day drift. Taking advantage of the downtime, Tetsumaru dispelled his three Shadow Clones one by one. Each dismissal was an agonizing process of mental adaptation.
Seeing the original in such a pathetic state made the clones quite happy. That's what you get for making us eat sand in the desert while you had the good life in Konoha. Karma.
After six days of grueling mental endurance, Tetsumaru finally set foot on the Land of Tea. He chose a large, rocky island ten kilometers off the coast as his foothold.
For the last six days, dispelling clones that had been active for half a year had left Tetsumaru sprawled on the raft, gasping for air and left to the mercy of fate.
Finally having made it, Tetsumaru jumped off the raft and stood on the beach. His body swayed involuntarily, the world spinning around him.
He knew what this was: his vestibular system had spent too long adapting to the swaying of the ocean, and returning to solid ground required a period of recalibration.
He closed his eyes, bracing his hands on his knees until the vertigo subsided. Then, he began hauling the timber and planks ashore. Finally, he dismantled the raft, using the logs as rollers to move the giant scorpion into a massive cavern beneath the island's main peak.
He didn't have time to study the beast yet; he needed to let it recover for a few days. Keeping it sedated and starved for thirteen days had been a necessary emergency measure.
If he didn't end the Dune Scorpion's sedation and let it eat, it would literally starve to death. He had kept it under just to ensure the creature wouldn't be a threat during transit.
The massive cave was a major reason he had chosen this island. The rock of the main peak was hard and thick, and the cave featured numerous fissures small enough for humans but far too small for the scorpion to escape, ensuring ventilation.
By sealing the main entrance with stone and steel bars, he had created a perfect cage for the behemoth—and a future laboratory for cultivating giant insects.
From the start, Tetsumaru had no intention of messing with true "Giant Insects" in Konoha. Demotion, reprimand, or destruction—those were the only three outcomes he could expect. When he had raised a mere 3.6-meter Scythe-Mantis, the Hokage had become incredibly nervous. A 55-meter giant scorpion? Forget about it.
His first goal for the giant insects remained the Arachnids. Specifically, the Tanker/Plasma Bug Tetsumaru was so fond of—over fifty meters long, weighing over a hundred tons, with a tail capable of firing devastating artillery rounds.
Of course, Tetsumaru didn't have the technology for magnetically-confined plasma bolts. Since he was in the Ninja World, his giant insects would use Ninjutsu for their artillery.
Bijuu Dama was out of the question for now, but he already had two Wind Style "cannons" prepared.
The first was the Wind Come Cannon, a super-sized jutsu designed by Orochimaru for his giant pythons. Since no python was actually large enough to utilize it, it had been tossed into a trade with Tetsumaru as a throwaway bonus.
The second was the Renkuudan (Drilling Air Bullet), the signature talent of the One-Tail, Shukaku.
Suna's sealing techniques were atrocious; their Jinchuriki were prone to losing control. Even with a rare compatible host, safety was never guaranteed.
When Suna invaded Konoha through the Land of Rivers, the Fourth Kazekage had planned to bring the One-Tail Jinchuriki. However, the Bijuu went berserk. Though the valiant Sand ninjas suppressed the One-Tail, the Jinchuriki was heavily injured in the process and couldn't travel.
During the siege of Suna, even at the brink of life and death, the Kazekage hadn't dared keep the dangerous Bijuu inside the village, leaving it at a secret location outside.
Every time Suna deployed the One-Tail, it emerged from the deep desert to strike. Orochimaru and Tsunade would use their summons to hold the line, which was the only reason the Bijuu hadn't disrupted the main battlefield.
Tsunade's Katsuyu wasn't suited for head-on combat; she would simply split when hit. The burden of resisting Shukaku fell on Orochimaru and his giant snakes. Quite a few snakes had died, and Orochimaru had racked up a massive debt with Manda.
Orochimaru himself had been hit by Shukaku's Renkuudan and Sand Buckshot repeatedly, enduring blow after blow for hours before finally driving the fat tanuki back.
During the siege of Suna, the reclusive Orochimaru had actually been the one to contribute the most.
But "long illness makes a good doctor." Having been hit so many times, Orochimaru naturally learned the mechanics of the Renkuudan and Sand Buckshot. Unfortunately, these jutsu were only suitable for monsters of massive size, not for ninjas.
Orochimaru didn't value these two techniques, so Tetsumaru had picked them up on the cheap. He collected these "monster-tier" jutsu specifically for his planned giant insects.
Orochimaru couldn't use these jutsu on his snakes because they couldn't be taught, nor could they be easily sealed into the snakes' bodies.
Giant insects were different. Their massive bodies provided enough surface area to carve chakra runes directly into their carapaces. They would use ninjutsu through runes, requiring zero intelligence from the bug itself.
Visualizing a future where Mantis swarms covered the land while "Laser Insects" provided long-range fire, Tetsumaru let out a dark chuckle.
By then, I'll have the capital to become the public enemy of the Ninja World. If I'm in a bad mood, I could trigger the Third Great Ninja War myself.
Of course, it was just a thought.
Even ignoring bloodlines and bonds, Tetsumaru couldn't defeat the Ninja World with just two types of giant insects. It was too simple, too unsystematic.
Shinobi civilization, however warped it might be, was a complete civilizational system. The war machine developed on the foundation of chakra was comprehensive.
To defeat the Ninja World, one either needed transcendent high-end combat power to crush all ninjas through sheer tier-suppression, or a complete civilizational system capable of meeting every challenge the shinobi could throw at them.
Tetsumaru decided to walk both paths. He had no choice; the "waters" of the Ninja World were too deep. There were too many monsters hiding beneath the surface. Even the Sage of Six Paths hadn't revealed his full hand by the end of the original story, making it impossible to gauge the true depths of the world.
So, thoughts were thoughts, but work was work. It was time to build a foundation and establish a Broodmother.
On the western side of the island's main peak, Tetsumaru placed a Brain Worm to begin incubating the first full-sized, full-function Broodmother. This time, he didn't use a tree for cover, nor did he hide entirely underground. He let it stand proudly on the earth. This was, after all, a no-man's land.
As the Brain Worm began its pupation, Tetsumaru pulled out a small, sealed test tube. Inside was a pinch of Physarum Polycephalum, fully matured and covered in yellow fuzz and transparent bubbles filled with pale yellow spores.
Tetsumaru carefully placed the tube on a newly captured sea beast. He set a trigger to break the tube, then scrambled to a safe distance.
Click.
A soft sound. Two minutes later, the sea beast was completely engulfed by the fungal colony and thoroughly digested. The fungus began to expand rapidly, spreading toward the shore and the forest.
Tetsumaru stood far away on a high rock, watching the slime mold sweep across the beach, toppling trees and hunting living prey. He gripped a sealing scroll tightly in his hand; it contained a high-potency fungicide. If things went south, he would act immediately.
The moment the fungal mass made contact with the developing Broodmother, the violent expansion suddenly turned gentle. It began to spread with order. Even the nutrient-poor areas it had previously bypassed were now covered, sprouting countless tiny purple leaves.
These deep purple leaves were optimized for absorbing sunlight. The surface of the "purple leaf" fungus was covered in a layer of coolant, preventing it from being scorched by the sun, allowing it to perform highly efficient photosynthesis.
As the yellow fungus turned completely purple, the Creep was finally complete.
Seeing everything proceeding smoothly, Tetsumaru finally relaxed and stowed the sealing scroll.
The new era of the Swarm had begun.